Principles & Practice of Pain Medicine > Part IV. Pain by Anatomic Location > A. Head and Neck > Chapter 20. Common Headache Syndromes Harvey J. Blumenthal and Alan M. Rapoport

Common Headache Syndromes: Introduction

"Headache is one of the most common painful conditions for which patients consult physicians. Surveys indicate that in any given year, more than 90% of American adults will suffer some kind of headache or head pain.¹ Fortunately, very few headaches are caused by serious organic conditions, and most headaches are actually migraine or tension-type headache. The first step in treating a patient with headache is to establish an accurate diagnosis, and for diagnostic purposes headaches are divided into primary and secondary headache disorders. Secondary headaches have an underlying cause, such as infection, eye disease, tumor, aneurysm, meningitis, and so forth. Primary headache disorders are benign and tend to recur. These headaches are caused by conditions for which the true basis has not yet been established, but altered brain serotonin chemistry clearly plays a role (see Chapter 19 for a discussion of the biology of primary headaches). Chapter 17 outlines diagnostic criteria for migraine, tension-type headache, and cluster headache, the three most common headache syndromes. In this chapter, we comment on differential diagnosis, diagnostic testing, and management of patients with these common primary headache disorders...."